Hybrid View

This Team Needs to Attack the Rim on Offense

Denver was able to have the league's 5th best offense despite being a bad 3-point shooting team. They were 20th in makes per game at 6.4 on just 34.3% shooting (even the Raptors were better than this, same percentage more makes).

Denver also doesn't have any players that one would consider elite offensively... or even any guys that excel in halfcourt isolation.

So how the hell was their offense so good? By pushing the tempo (2nd in pace) and attacking the rim in the halfcourt set. Look at the shot chart for their best 5 man unit (Lawson-Iggy-Gallo-Faried-Koufos).

More than HALF (174/300) of their shot attempts as a unit came inside the paint, which allowed them to shoot 51.7% from the field as a unit. This is ridiculously efficient.

I'd argue that we have more offensive talent than that Nuggets team, better defensive players and either equal or better rebounding. We also have the athleticism to push the pace offensively while still playing great defense (despite their pace Denver was still 11th in defense). So why the hell isn't it happening?

Because Denver's offense was great during the regular season, and collapsed in the playoffs when they had to play a series of games against a team that could shoot the three well.

They were also missing arguably their best offensive talent in Gallinari.

Edit: And actually what hurt Denver in the playoffs wasn't the fact that they were an inside scoring team. It was the fact that they FORGOT they were an inside scoring team and proceeded to shoot more threes per game than the Warriors did during the playoffs (led the whole playoffs with 22.5 attempts per game), while only making 31.1% of them. They tried to beat the Warriors at their own game and got burned for it.

Their defense was also terrible as the Warriors shot 49.4% against them and 40.4% from 3.

guys that are willing to put their head down and just drive to the rim over and over are actually few and far between. when Demar is doing it we're at our best, but for the most part he settles for jumpers and we all know how that goes.

This has been a problem since Carter feel in love with his jumper. This has been a problem for over a decade.

That's partly why Lowry was so exciting at the beginning of last year -- he was getting to the rim so easily. Then not so much after he went down with that first injury. Not sure if that was because of the injury nagging, or because of some other injury, or because of Casey's muzzle, or some combination of all of them, but it'd be great to see him get back to that.

That's partly why Lowry was so exciting at the beginning of last year -- he was getting to the rim so easily. Then not so much after he went down with that first injury. Not sure if that was because of the injury nagging, or because of some other injury, or because of Casey's muzzle, or some combination of all of them, but it'd be great to see him get back to that.

It seemed like the greatest influence was how well Jose started running the offense during Lowry's absence. Lowry either thought to himself, "I need to play more like Jose"....or he was told to do so by the coaching staff.

But I agree Lowry didn't finish the year playing anything close to the same style he started the year with.

That's partly why Lowry was so exciting at the beginning of last year -- he was getting to the rim so easily. Then not so much after he went down with that first injury. Not sure if that was because of the injury nagging, or because of some other injury, or because of Casey's muzzle, or some combination of all of them, but it'd be great to see him get back to that.

That's partly why Lowry was so exciting at the beginning of last year -- he was getting to the rim so easily. Then not so much after he went down with that first injury. Not sure if that was because of the injury nagging, or because of some other injury, or because of Casey's muzzle, or some combination of all of them, but it'd be great to see him get back to that.

Caseys muzzle...hahaha you mean Casey asking him not to be a ball hogging idiot when his job is to be a PG....hahaha classic.

Agreed. This team (more specifically, the starting 5) has more than enough potential & athleticism to become a solid defensive and fast paced team. Good defense leads to even better offense.

I've said this before, but I'm hopeful Ujiri can bring some of that Denver mentality to our team. Dunno if he had anything to do with Karl's systems, but it'd be nice if he did.

Yup, and our bench players could fit this model as well. Buycks looks like a slashing scoring PG with the length and quickness to excel on D. Ross could be as well if he would actually use his athleticism and attack the rim. And everyone already knows that Psycho T's game is all about going to the basket.

Yup, and our bench players could fit this model as well. Buycks looks like a slashing scoring PG with the length and quickness to excel on D. Ross could be as well if he would actually use his athleticism and attack the rim. And everyone already knows that Psycho T's game is all about going to the basket.

It also looks like Ujiri is trying to put together a team that will crash the O-boards and get the F back on defense. We'll have speed and hustle at the 4 and 5 at all times. Between Amir, Psycho and JV (and occasionally Acy) there's potential for a lot of put backs, especially with the way our team shoots haha